Tired of the hassles of commercial air travel-or perhaps of the responsibilities of owning an aircraft? Maybe it's time to play the jet card.
Jet cards provide guaranteed access to flight time aboard private aircraft without the "deadhead" or repositioning fees associated with charter, and without the huge upfront investment or long-term commitment that go with jet ownership.

Fractional ownership became popular in the 1990s and now is a staple on the private air travel menu of options. With fractional, you purchase a partial interest in an aircraft that an aviation company operates. Along with other owners, you have the right to use any comparable aircraft in the company's fleet, on demand, for a predetermined number of hours each year.

Recent developments signal significant changes in the aircraft charter industry-changes that could affect you if you're either a charter customer or an owner who makes his airplane available for charter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order suspending the trading of shares of online charter broker Connect- A-Jet from October 1 to 12 because of alleged "deceptive practices." Trading resumed after Connect-A-Jet filed Form 15c2-11 to reinstate the quoting of its stock with the SEC, but the commission won't comment on whether the firm remains under investigation.

Every day, a fleet of more than 600 helicopters transports 10,000 passengers to and from thousands of oil and natural gas rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. For the better part of the last four decades, one helicopter model has dominated that fleet: the five-seat Bell JetRanger.

Don't expect charter-flight Web sites to offer the kind of one-stop booking you get with the airlines on Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity. Nonetheless, many such sites now provide tools and data that make planning and arranging an air charter flight easy.

Considering that the fractional-aircraft field was borne of a new business model and has been around for more than 20 years, it is perhaps surprising that the basic structure remains fundamentally unchanged: you purchase a share of an aircraft from the provider at a premium; you pay management fees, hourly rates and fuel surcharges; and at the end of your contract, you sell your share back to t

Quote/Unquote

“Time is our most precious commodity, and there are conveniences that wealth brings to essentially get you more time.
—retired Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, explaining why he commutes via private jet from his Seattle home to watch games of the Los Angeles Clippers, the basketball team he bought last year for $2 billion.
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